Why Human Intelligence is Rapidly Decreasing - With Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath

Shawn Stevenson (0:00)

You are now listening to The Model Health Show with Shawn Stevenson.

Welcome to The Model Health Show. I remember the statement from the one and only Whitney Houston in stating that, I believe the children are the future. At this time, I was one of those children. All right, so it hit different. It's like, am I the future? Do I have all this potential? What about the environment? What about the things that seem to be stacked against me in becoming the future? A leader, somebody who has gifts to give, and aspirations, and a life of meaning.

Today, more than ever, this sentiment has never been more important. Because what you're going to learn today are facts about what's happening with our children's education.

As we stand here today, our children, this current generation, throughout time, as long as we've been tracking this stuff, every generation has outperformed the one before it, has essentially become smarter and smarter, and more and more educated. But that phenomenon has reversed. Our children are now less cognitively capable than previous generations. Something is going seriously awry, and we have to put an end to this. Our children are born into these circumstances. This is not their choice, and I believe that they are the future, and that future is up to us.

In this episode, sometimes you need to hear a conversation that pisses you off a little bit. Sometimes you need to hear something that really hits your, your heartstrings, hits you deeply, to get you to realize that this is unacceptable. And I'm so grateful for this incredible conversation and this incredible neuroscientist. And also, what's so phenomenal about our special guest, not only is he a highly acclaimed prestigious neuroscientist, but he's also somebody with decades of experience as an educator for children.

And so again, we need to know what the problem is, of course, but we also need to be pointed in the direction of real solutions. And so I'm very grateful to be able to share this conversation with you today. Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath is a neuroscientist, educator, and best-selling author who specializes in human learning and brain development. He's the creator of the Learning Blueprint, an international award-winning program helping educators and students understand how learning actually works. Jared has conducted research and taught at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Melbourne. And he's worked with more than 1,000 schools around the world. He's the author of six books, including his newest, The Digital Delusion. And he's published over 50 peer-reviewed articles. And today, he's about to share with you the real data showing what technology is doing to our children's brains and their ability to learn. Let's dive in this conversation with the incredible Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath. Jared.

Jared Cooney Horvath (3:34)

Hello.

Shawn Stevenson (3:34)

I'm so excited to talk to you today.

Jared Cooney Horvath (3:36)

Thank you so much for having me here.

Shawn Stevenson (3:38)

Let's start off with the big question. Let's talk about the cognitive abilities of modern children. What do we all need to know?

Jared Cooney Horvath (3:45)

The hardest thing to say, but it has to be said, is that our children are less cognitively capable than we were at their age.

Since we've been recording cognitive abilities since the late 1800s, every generation outperforms their parents on basically everything. Memory, attention, literacy, numeracy, creativity. And the reason for it we've tracked back was always education. And it makes sense. Education is where you cut your cognition. Every generation of kids spends more time in school than their parents did. You see why we go up. And unfortunately, Gen Z has done something different. Even though they go to more school than we do, since about 2010, they've now decoupled and their cognition is going down. So depending on what you care about, if you want to, IQ down, working memory down, sustained attention down, everything is going in the wrong direction. So our big argument was always why? School hasn't changed that much. Biology, evolutionary wise, hasn't had time to change. So what changed? And I think the answer is, as probably people can figure out, digital technology. It was one of those, once tech entered school, learning just started to tank miserably.

And that's where we find ourselves today.

Shawn Stevenson (5:04)

Well, we're going to dig in on all the whys and the different parts, but you mentioned biology, like our biology hasn't changed in all this time.

And that's one of the parts of learning that I don't think we think about. We just think it's just like brain stuff and it's just all about the brain. But learning is biological itself. And you kind of highlight that in the book. Talk about that.